OUTSIDE

Directed by Carlo Ledesma, who also did The Tunnel (2011). This Filipino-made post-apocalyptic film was groundbreaking. It is the first ever Filipino zombie film to have made an international release via Netflix. Normally it would feature large scale infections, news and whatnot; this one focused the story on one family. Now, some would say “well, that’s not much of a zombie film now is it?” And I agree with that notion, it’s not an in-your-face zombie film like World War Z or 28 Days Later. The zombies here sort of acted like a fence. They boxed the family in. The family was forced together with all their personal problems, both emotional and psychological.

Casting was great, even the kids had notable performances, Beauty Gonzales did an exceptional job being the broken wife all throughout the film, since her first shot, you could see how tired and hopeless she was. Sid Lucero was phenomenal, and dare I say carried the film on his shoulders. The kids looked genuinely terrified of him whenever he bursts out. Lucero managed to switch his personality from happy to crazy angry to a demeanor like nothing happened. This reminded me of a character from “Martyrs 2008″ who also suffered from PTSD. 

The zombie designs were good, not great, but it was enough. At first it was confusing as to how they could talk and their choice of word or phrase, but as it went on, it seemed like they are able to retain a recent memory, that’s why it’s on loop. Instead of the usual grunts, they did this, which I think was ingenious of them. As stated before, the zombies here acted more like a barricade, hence they’re trapped inside the ancestral house and no one is allowed to go outside; no jump scares, not much chase scenes as well, so don’t expect it to be that kind of film.

There were no mentions about the state of the rest of the world, which was a risky move but it works out in their favor. It removes unnecessary distractions and lets the audience focus more on the family. Every now and then they’d introduce another character, though with short screen time, it adds tension. A small pebble thrown into a pond that causes tons of ripples within the family.

The music and sound effects here were flawless. It is where they’re meant to be. Nothing felt forced, weird, or out of place. Some scenes had an accompaniment to convey it’s emotions, and it was orchestrated beautifully. In my opinion, when you don’t notice the music and SFX that much, it means it was done with precision, you’d instantly hear something off if it doesn’t fit the scene. 

My only issue here was that the first half was dragging. The moments of stillness was used excessively and felt unnecessary; for me, they could’ve advanced the story then. The reason why the general public had mixed reviews about this was because of how it was advertised, it felt like an adrenaline-induced film yet the end product was a slow burn. The opening scene up until half of it was a slow build up of tension, partner that with how they marketed it, and you got yourself a group of unsatisfied viewers. Going into this, manage your expectations. This is not your usual zombie flick, this is psychological horror set within a zombie apocalypse.

This was a big step for Filipino films, the direction and production was very well done. It was also a pleasure to see them not going the conservative route. There were some gore moments and was done tastefully. Looking forward to more Filipino-made films that aren’t afraid to take chances.